New Dressform

I am really excited.  My new dressform arrived today.  I am wondering if people give their dressforms nicknames or if I am being weird?  My other dress form, Bertha, is not my size and I am not emotionally attached to her.  She is just a tool for doing work.  The new dressform is my size and as I adjusted her to be like me, I felt this instant bond.  She is going to be my new best friend.  I just have to do a few things to make her more like my twin.  A little padding here and there and she will have this uncanny resemblance to me--minus a head of course.  Magzy is the nickname for my new dressform in honor of my online alter-ego.  Magzy is a wonderful burdundy color and I can hardly wait to start sticking pins into her!  Alas, she will have to wait a bit though as I will be starting on Addy's dress soon.  

I know I have not blogged for quite a while.  I was waiting and waiting for my kakishibui and indigo to do their thing and be ready to work with.  It was actually good to take a break for a while.  My stitching hand is much better now that it has been a year since the surgery.  I made small projects for friends and family.  I also designed a project for Stitch magazine that should be coming out in January.  2011 will be off to a good start after taking a bit of a break.

Bertha will be adjusted and padded to match Addy and when I need a break I can work on Magzy and create some things for me. 

Indigo Seed

I am so happy--my indigo seed arrived in the mail today. Polygonum tinctorium also known as Dyer's Knotweed from Companion Plants. I was not exactly sure how much seed would be in each packet so I ordered six packets. I am now the proud owner of 300 indigo seeds. I really only planned a planting bed for 48 plants, not a whole field. My original plan called for about 100 seeds in hopes that I would end up with 48 plants healthy enough to transplant from seedlings to planting bed. I am putting the extra seed packets into the fridge for next year now. If all goes well I will be able to harvest my own seed at the end of the season. My hubby is even on board with this project as he likes to plan our yard space and likes growing things.

I am going to start the seeds this weekend and will keep posting my progress here. I am thinking of taking a plant or two to school to grown indoors there year round and see if I can keep it growing over the course of a year to do fresh leaf vats in the off season.

All of this--the persimmon juice fermenting into kakishibui in my basement, the indigo farming, the ebaying to get bolts of antique silks--just to make one dress. A very special dress for one of my nieces. She is quite the artist herself and sat down with me at one of our family gatherings to give me some input on how it should look. One of my other nieces is going to assist with the beadwork and make the jewelry to accompany the dress. I have never taken so long to plan or make anything before.

Kakishibui Update

My Kakishibui (persimmon dye) is fermenting its little heart out. I am having to let off excess gas from it every day. I had forgotten to check it one day and the plastic gas can I have it stored in had bloated out so big I was almost afraid to go near it. I let off some of it using the safety valve and then opened the lid a little bit. The gases from the fermentation process are rather stinky!

My project using this has an extended deadline now. While at first this was a little disappointing, I now see the plus side---more time to experiment to make sure I get it right. I hope this means I will be able to use my first homegrown indigo crop with the kakishibui. My one year deadline has become a two year deadline. Wow! How often do you get that? Maybe this will make it Really Really Slowwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Fiber.

I want to give a shout out to Elaine Lipson and her wonderful blog, Red Thread Studio, that got me started on this Slow Fiber idea. She is a great writer and her website will send you on some great fiber adventures. http://lainie.typepad.com/

Kakishibui

My kakishibui seems to be fermenting. I checked the container yesterday and found it to be a bit bloated out. I pressed down on the cap and quite a bit of fumes rushed out--much like letting the air out of a tire. I see that I will need to check it a little more often. It is really hard for me to fight the urge to peek at it to see if it is turning color. Patience is a part of "slow fiber" and patience is something I want so badly to get better at. I have been working on several designs using the kakishibui and indigo dye. Some are on paper now and some are still floating around in my head. I am also interested in burning the edges of the silk but have not had time to research that yet. I am hoping that what I am creating will not be to avant garde for my neice to model.

Juicing Persimmons for Kakishibui

It is best to juice the persimmons while they are green and at peak levels of tannin. The tannin is what will help the dye to "stick" to the cloth. And anyone who has handled persimmons, ripe or not, will tell you the critters are sticky as all get out! After ripening they will turn a very pretty dusky orange color and where I come from they get made into a baked pudding.

Wow I look old in this picture....speaking of needing to dye something.....

As you can see, the American variety of persimmon is not very big. It takes quite a few to make a gallon of juice. I found that it took four gallons of fresh persimmons to make one gallon of juice. I had to cut them in half and pop out the big seeds. Unripe persimmons are hard and I ended up getting a blister on my hand from trying to cut them.

Let the juicing begin! I have no idea how anyone could do this without using a juicer. I cut the persimmons, took out what seeds I could and popped them in. I did have to stop and clean the blades and the lid out quite a few times and the fibrous bits were quite sticky. My skin on my hands was getting very wrinkly towards the end of my juicing session.

Lovely green persimmon juice! Now it goes into a plastic vented gas can and I let it ferment for about a year. That gives me some time to do planning and prep work. I also hope to grow some indigo to use on the same project. I really love the contrast of the persimmon and indigo dye.

Kakishibui

Today is the beginning of what will be a year long project. I am collecting green persimmons from my parents persimmon pudding contest prize winning trees to make my own kakishibui. I have a storage can with vent so it hopefully will not blow up as the persimmon juice ferments over the next year. Nothing so exciting as something that could explode if not done correctly!

Kakishibui is actually made with the oriental variety of persimmon which is a larger fruit than our north american variety. However, there are sources for obtaining the traditional juice online. If you click the link above, you can read all about kakishibui and this page does an excellent job of explaining it http://www.kakishibui.com/about.html Chris Conrad's site is very informative and they even offer workshops. You must look at the gallery for some inspiration on how to use this wonderful dye. I especially like the kakishibui and indigo together.

My hometown has a Persimmon Festival every year. My grandmother, father, mother and older brother have all won in the Persimmon Pudding contest using ripe persimmons from the trees I am gathering from today. Lets hope it brings me the good fortune it has brought them and I end up with a lovely work of wearable art.

To read more about the Persimmon Festival you can go their official website http://www.persimmonfestival.org/ but it looks like a lot of the links aren't working today. Hopefully they are getting it update as the festival is only a few weeks away.